Monday, July 7, 2008

This song has by now been reduced to a baby boomer cliché, wistful nostalgia and sepia hues. I wonder if there's any life in it at all.

Do you ever feel that way? I'm sure you have. I used to love this song. I was born just as the sixties culture was dying, and YCAGWYW helped me understand a little of what went on during that time. But now... I don't know. All I can hear is Mick and the band embarrass themselves on stage, performing this song to an uncritical audience who doesn't want to be challenged, just reassured that some things will not change.

Isn't it funny that I can feel that way about some songs, and not about others? I don't even know where this feeling is coming from. But it stands to reason, that if there are songs that are filled with possibilities, there is the chances that these possibilities will fade over time. Why this has happened to "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and not, say, "In My Life" is a mystery to me.

I'll leave you with this clip, the second one I have posted which features Keith forgetting to bring a guitar strap to a television taping:

1 comments:

I could not agree more with you about this song. I used to really like it. And now all I can think of is them performing it while 50 year old men sing along with their babies on their shoulders. This would be the track I go take a piss. So many of the stones songs have become that. In fact they are the only band where you don't mind taking a piss and missing the opening song of the concert. "Start me up", bah who gives a shit, they have been opening with it for 25 fuckin years.

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